This is the middle of hockey season. So what is Scott Wedgewood doing balancing on a skateboard — which was floating above a rolling pin — frantically taking jabs at an electronic panel?

Maybe the former Plymouth Whalers goaltender — who in 2015-16 made a successful National Hockey League debut with the New Jersey Devils — gave up the game he loves to become immersed in some kind of newfangled extreme sport.

Not on your life. Wedgewood, 24, was doing what he called a reaction exercise at state-of-the-art Barwis Methods Training Center in Plymouth.

It was part of a carefully monitored two-hour morning workout, designed to keep the rest of his body strong and fit while his surgically repaired right shoulder heals.

Wedgewood ruptured the shoulder capsule Nov. 18 during an Albany Devils AHL game and has been rehabbing since the end of December.

Getting it done

But he also has to spend an hour or so after the sessions at adjacent ATI Physical Therapy, getting his right arm and shoulder kneaded and nudged to health by physical therapist Greg Moore (who also helps high school athletes from Plymouth-Canton Educational Park return from surgeries).

Wedgewood, of course, would rather be standing in front of his goal snagging pucks for the Devils (or with Albany) than dealing with elastic resistance bands during PT.

‘It burns,” said the affable guy who friends call Wedgie, as he methodically yanked on the bands.

That’s fine with him, because it means he is well down the path to a full recovery after what seems like an eternity on the sidelines.

“This is better than doing nothing,” Wedgewood said with a smile, adding that it was tough sitting at home in Ontario at his parents’ house for close to eight weeks following surgery.

Wedgewood added that his hope is to skate again very soon, maybe before March begins.

“They won’t let me on the ice until after week 12 post-surgery, just in case you fall and stretch out the repair,” he said. “Very cautious, no running or shaking of it.

“I’m hoping to head down to Albany mid-March and see where we’re at. Everyone says don’t rush it, you don’t want to hurt it, which is very true. But at the same time, that’s a timeline I’d be very happy with. Watching hockey’s tough sometimes.”

Staying upbeat

For everything Wedgewood has gone through the past couple of seasons, it would seem tough for him to ever crack a smile.

But the goaltender, who played four seasons with the now-defunct Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, never seems without one.

“I don’t think I ever have a bad day,” Wedgewood said. “If it is a bad day, I usually find a way to smile. I like to have fun and joke around.

“People in this gym and the physical therapy at ATI, everybody in my life, I’ve surrounded myself with some good people.”

Such a positive outlook and relentless work ethic helps keep Wedgewood on New Jersey's radar.

“I think with the way I played over the last couple years,” Wedgewood said, “what I’ve shown when I did my NHL debut and with what I bring to the table — not just as a player, but as a person — I’m very comfortable in the organization.

“Everybody I talked to it seems like it’s the same way back.”

He certainly has earned a chance to stick around, just from his perseverance alone.

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Many pro and college athletes from all walks of sports train at Barwis Methods in Plymouth, including goaltender Scott Wedgewood. On the wall behind him are framed uniform jerseys of other big-name athletes who trained there.(Photo: RENA LAVERTY)

Second setback

That’s because this is Wedgewood’s second ride on the injury roller-coaster.

Wedgewood already had a round of pain, suffering and rehab under his belt when he made his NHL debut during a four-game stint for the Devils in March 2016. He defeated Columbus in his first game, 3-1, and then blanked eventual Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh.

He played 241 minutes and posted a 1.24 goals-against average and .957 save percentage, while going 2-1-1.

That unforgettable week for the Brampton, Ontario, native actually took place after his first major injury setback.

Early in the 2015-16 season, while playing at Albany, he landed awkwardly on his right arm and sustained a partial tear to his interior and anterior shoulder labrums.

“They told me surgery was an option, but I could rehab it for six weeks and I could play for 10 minutes, 10 years or 10 games,” Wedgewood said. “You never know and, if you came out again, you’d most likely need surgery. So we rehabbed it.

“Came back early March (2016), played in about four games in the American League and got called to the NHL.”

He returned to Albany for that spring’s playoffs and then spent summer months rehabbing and training at Barwis Methods (the gym he discovered during his years with the Whalers), along with physical therapy at ATI.

“Unfortunately, in a game in November against Binghamton, I was just behind the net, made a pass and got into a little bit of a scrum with my D-man and the other player,” Wedgewood said. “As I was going back to my net, he had a passing option to the slot, so I went down on a knee, slid back into the net and fully stretched again trying to block a passing lane.”

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Although Scott Wedgewood still can’t put his surgically repaired right shoulder to the test, he goes full tilt on whatever exercises Barwis Methods trainers deem him ready to do.(Photo: RENA LAVERTY)

Sounds and sweat

Then came that crunching sound and sharp pain: Wedgewood’s shoulder capsule ruptured.

Three months later, he hears different sounds. There are plenty of grunts, along with the whir and wonder of modern exercise machinery, to fill the air at Barwis Methods.

One sound not heard is Wedgewood complaining about his injury-devastated professional hockey life. He isn’t crazy about one day’s workout blending into the next, but it beats the heck out of the alternative.

“This is a physical battle,” Wedgewood said. “It’s more of an emotional kind of beat down than anything. You don’t have to get up every day if you don’t want to.

“But you see football guys in here (such as Canton resident Mike Martin, formerly of the University of Michigan and NFL Philadelphia Eagles), wrestlers I worked out with. Everybody’s going through the same battle, to be the best they can possibly be.

“You grow and you work together and you push each other. It’s fun. I’ve met a lot of good people through here, not even in the sport of hockey.”

Wedgewood is one of the good ones, too.

And once he finally gets the green light from New Jersey Devils management to resume his career, he can be excused for not wanting to see the exercise equipment inside Barwis Methods for quite some time.

While steadying himself on a skateboard -- which is on top of a rolling pin -- Scott Wedgewood "reacts" to the flashing lights on an electronic panel at Barwis Methods.(Photo: Rena Laverty)

Scott Wedgewood was drafted 84th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils.(Photo: RENA LAVERTY)

THE WEDGEWOOD FILE

Who: Scott Wedgewood, injured goalie in the system of the NHL's New Jersey Devils.

What: The 24-year-old from Ontario, Canada, is working his way back to health after a ruptured capsule in his right shoulder required surgery.

Injury: Wedgewood fell on his shoulder Nov. 18, playing for the Devils’ Albany affiliate in the American Hockey League.

Rest and rehab: After resting several weeks following surgery at the Brampton, Ontario, home of his parents, Mike and Brenda Wedgewood, he returned to Plymouth — where he formerly played OHL hockey with the Whalers and went to high school. In late December, he began a rigorous routine of training and physical therapy, at Barwis Methods and ATI Physical Therapy, respectively.

Time frame: The goaltender is hopeful that he can soon get back onto the ice and perhaps begin light hockey drills in March.

Career: Wedgewood played four seasons at Compuware Arena with the now-defunct Plymouth Whalers, from 2008-09 through 2011-12. He was drafted 84th overall by the Devils in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. After playing most of the 2012-13 season with Trenton of the ECHL, he played the following two seasons with the Albany Devils.

NHL: In March 2016, he was called up to New Jersey and went 2-1-1 with a splendid 1.24 goals-against average and .957 save percentage. He posted his first NHL shutout against Pittsburgh.